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As architects, we cleave to the understanding that good design is of tangible benefit to people. Our work is an expression of human centred design at its most vital. Each day it is our role to advocate for the creation of spaces that meet the fundamental human need for shelter while enriching the lives of the communities who engage with them.

In a recent partnership, the first of its kind for our industry, Rothelowman engaged in an ongoing partnership with local Australian developer, SOHO Living. This unique opportunity presented itself in the form of a question surrounding a familiar typology – the townhouse.

How could Rothelowman employ our expertise in multiple sectors and states, partnering with a local developer to make the ownership of an architecturally designed townhouse more accessible?

Read on to learn how we unpacked this question through our exciting collaboration.

Value engineered design.

For our designs to be viable, it is imperative that they are commercially feasible. At Rothelowman, this means ensuring our work adds value for everyone who is set to benefit from the built form; from the client, right through to the residents and end users of the project.

Discussions of commerciality can all too soon conjure images of poorly designed spaces where corners have been cut – eliminating elements which Rothelowman consider critical. However, our teams have executed literally thousands of townhouses over more than 25 years of practice. This track record, coupled with our design evolution has shown us that the creation of a commercially astute project need not preclude good design – in fact, quite the opposite.

The constraints of creating a practical design force us to work smarter. It is a challenge our teams in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne readily engage with, by sharing in-depth knowledge of the unique markets we possess experience in.

Objectively good design.

Good design calls for a shift beyond what is generally accepted as beautiful, into intelligence and functionality. At Rothelowman we believe that ‘beautiful design,’ is not merely subjective, and that there are factors which make some designs objectively good for humankind.

Our expertise enables us to create spaces that reduce energy consumption, increase community engagement, and offer greater privacy and security for people. This partnership enables us to share the intelligence behind our work, making it readily accessible to all people who purchase in SOHO Living’s developments. This combination of architectural experience and construction know-how mean we offer an objectively good product to those seeking to live a life bettered by sound design.

Courage.

Quality developers have a sense of revolution about them. Commercial viability is priority number one, but more than this they seek to build communities – not commodities

In SOHO Living we see a developer who is willing to be courageous enough to make scalable progress in the property industry. It was this that compelled us to create for them a kit of parts which was replicable, manipulatable, and able to be adapted for reuse in unique settings. We have designed these not to be fashionable, but to be beneficial – both to the wider narrative of how living continues to change, and to the urban fabric which they will be situated in.

Our combined work is set to have tangible benefits for every-day people, and this new partnership will ensure Rothelowman safeguard the integrity of development streetscape design, while guaranteeing SOHO Living remains at the cutting edge of design in the built form industry.

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As designers, we look for the needs and problems facing clients and communities then unpack them through the project, translating and distilling them into suitable typologies, writes Jonothan Cowle, associate principal at Rothelowman. The...